TARTE ENERGY NOIR PALETTE ($38, ON SALE FOR $26 AT SEPHORA)

Part 2 of my ‘I bought it because it was sale’ series (part 1 was the UD GWEN palette). And for its another ‘eh’ rating. I say this because there’s some really nice colors and some really not so nice ones. First let’s talk about the weird layout of the palette. There’s 6 normal square eyeshadow pans, a large blush and then 3 long rectangular shadows at the bottom. I’m not sure why that it is? Are they supposed to be liners? And a highlighter maybe? I have no idea. The other thing that became immediately apparent is how similar these colors are to shades in other TARTE palettes. Specifically TARTELETTE, GRAVEYARD GIRL and STAR POWER. This was one of my grips with the TF SWEET PEACH PALETTE as well. Onto the shadows themselves… Let’s start with the good. All shimmer shadows are great. I love UP TOO SLATE and CHARGED UP and CRYSTAL SPARK are quite nice also. They’re dense, creamy and pigmented. The blush, UNEARTHED, is also beautiful and applies nicely. Same with MISTY MAUVE which is a dusty rose along the lines of ABH BUON FRESCO. FULL MOON is decent. It’s a matte off white. A little powdery, a little sheer but not bad.
And the not so good… let’s start with LUNAR ECLIPSE and DARK DRIVE. They’re basically the same color. DARK DRIVE is blackish brown. LUNAR ECLIPSE is black but it’s on the light side. The pigmentation on both is okay but nothing to write home about. Same with POWER PLUM. This dark matte eggplant color is tricky in eyeshadows. Very few brands manage to knock it out of the park with this color and this one is just mediocre. STONE UNTURNED is matte taupe and it’s patchy af.
So yeah… mixed bag. Had I paid full price this, I’d probably return it. But since it was on sale and I really like about half of the colors, I can justify keeping it. Who else bought it because it was on sale and how are you liking it??